Bowhunting
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Introduction: A bow is a weapon that projects arrows and the elasticity of the bow is what powers it, which essentially is a form of a spring. Energy is stored in the limbs of the bow when drawn, and transformed into rapid motion when releasing the string. Archery is the known technique of using a bow. The bow was one of the first weapons or hunting tools which used mechanical principles, rather than relying on the capabilities and strenght of the user. The earliest archeaological proof of bow and arrow use dates back approximately 40,000 years and originates from Western Europe. Design: The basic elements of a bow are a pair of elastic curved limbs, usually made from wood (or composite) connected by a string. The archer by pulling the string allows energy to be stored as a compressive force on the inner section. Originally, in bows drawn and held by hand, the maximum draw weight was determined by the strenght of the archer, and the size of the archer based on the maximum distance the string could be displaced. Wide variety of performance characterics are based on the elasticity of bow’s limbs, for example longer limbs provide longer draw lenghts. The endurance of these limbs must withstand repeated bending into a deep curve. The tips of the limbs may be bent back upon themselves for recurving bows, a single curve for longbows, or a combination of materials to create the limbs known as composite bow. Modern materials used for bow construction consist of laminated wood, fiberglass, metals and carbon fibre components. The string that connects both tips of the limbs are very critical as they undergo considerable stress when drawn. An ideal string material is strong for its mass, remains strong after exposure to moisture, resists stretching and should only break at four to five times the draw weight of its bow. |
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Variants: Although there are numerous types of bows, the choice is limited based on your requirements, in which case compound baws are your choice.
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Longbow The longbow has a very think core and thin limb. These types are very simple and generaly hand made. They can be made to shoot varying draw heights and are quite fast. The most critical component of these bows was the string itself. These could shoot over 300 yards at 150 ft/s. Although hunting is possible, modern day longbows are generally used as a hobby, due to the difficulty. |
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Recurve Bow - Target Training These types of bows are very similar to the longbow, with the only difference of the limb tips being bent forward. Thanks to this shape, the recurve bow can reduce loading at full draw, and impact much more energy to the arrow than a longbow. This also allows for use of much smaller bows rather than the conventional longbow, and due to this, recurve bows were very popular for horsenack, or brush and forest terrains. Again these types are used more for hobby in the modern day. |
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Composite Bow Although used for centuries, the modern composite bow is capable of shooting at a maximum distance of more than 850 yards at over 212 ft/s. These bows give superior accuracy, velocity and distance compared to longbows, due to the use of various materials, such as wood, horn, sinew, etc, glued together ultimately increasing the natural strenght and elasticity of these materials. |
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Compound Bow - Hunting Weapon A compound bow uses cables and pulleys, known as levering system to bend the limbs. The limbs of these bows are much stiffer than those of recurve of longbow, making more energy efficient. With this in mind, the limbs of compound bows are too stiff to be drawn comfortably with a string attached to them, and this is why its string is attached to the pulleys(cams), one or both of which has one or more cables attached to the opposite limb. When the string is drawn back causing the pulleys to turn, causing the pulleys to pull the cables, ultimately causing the limbs to bend and thus store energy. The design of the cams (pulleys) directly control the acceleration of the arrow, and these bows can be had in a variety of cams, in a full spectrum from soft (more gentle acceleration of arrow, choice for novice archers) to hard. Compound bows also use mechanical release aid to hold and release the string. This is attached to the bowstring near the point where the arrow is attached, which permits the release of the string with a squeeze of a trigger or a slight increase in tension, making it a perfect hunting weapon. Last but not least, compound bow’s stabilizers and dampers are very well developed, allowing for much more accurate shots, due to minimized movement of bow during release of string. |
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Bow Action
To the left is a basic diagram of how a bow works, in this case a recurve bow. Whether its a longbow or a compound type, bow actions is the same. When you draw a bow, its not the string that is affected, but the upper and lower limbs which change shape.
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Image Courtesy of Howstuffworks.com |
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